Green Agriculture

     Before the civil war, Virginia's driving economy was tobacco.  Everyone knows now that tobacco sucks the nutrients right out of the soil.  As a result, this makes the soil unsuitable for growing crops.  When Virginians first started growing tobacco, they began to see that growing tobacco in one spot for a long period of time had an effect on their quality overtime.  Eventually, they figured out a very practical, efficient, and green way to grow tobacco.

     Since there was no such thing as fertilizers back then, someone came up with the brilliant idea of rotating the tobacco by using different sections of the land every few years.  The first four years of growing tobacco was done in one section of the land.  When those years were up, they'd plant tobacco in another section and so on.  By the time the farmers came back to the first section of the land, the soil had enough time to recover from it's lack of nutrients.  This eventually led to the idea of crop rotation.

     Crop rotation was used by farmers and gardeners for a very long time to reduce infertile soil, diseases, and buildup of pests.  It is a three year rotation of crops.  For instance, you grow a certain type of crops for the first year, then a different type for the second year, and for the last year you let the soil recover for the next year.  Then the cycle begins again.  Another more modern type of crop rotation is having roots (potatoes), legumes (beans), alliums, and brassicas.  You can rotate these plants around every couple of years or so (by using different section of land) because every type of plant has a different role to play with the soil.  For instance, legumes--such as beans-- have a type of bacteria in their roots that can produce nitrogen (acting as a natural fertilizer) and roots--such as carrots- serve as a type of anti-bacterial in the soil (helps kill any potential disease or pest).  Rotating these crops around can produce a nice and healthy soil.

     This type of agriculture has definitely grown overtime, and it is very green!  It doesn't get any greener than this.  If you haven't clicked on the link above ("modern type of crop rotation") you should now.  It'll help you understand the modern crop rotation better.  It's highlighted in white.

Sources:

My knowledge of what I learned in history and botany class.

http://www.thegardenerscalendar.com/Guides/story.asp?nid=2677